The invention concerns bicycle lights in particular, but also other rechargeable lights such as worn on the body or on a helmet, and specifically the invention is concerned with a light unit contained in but readily removable from a housing and rechargeable using USB.
A large number of different rechargeable bicycle lights have been known, many of them currently marketed. In at least one case the bicycle light had a USB connection blade at rear, the light assembly being contained within a molded casing to be mounted to the bicycle handlebar, seat post or other structure. A back end of the light, separate from the mount, could be removed from the main part of the light's casing to expose a USB contact blade. In order to recharge the battery of the light assembly using the USB connection, the light had to be removed from the bicycle and plugged into a suitable USB port, or a USB extension cord could be brought to the light. With such an assembly the entire casing unit must be waterproof for preventing moisture damage to the LED, circuit board and battery. This can be a cumbersome issue with multiple casing components and an external switch on the casing. Another problem with the construction was that it might not always be possible to recharge the battery, particularly using the USB port, because of the bulky nature of the case which can interfere with access to a typical USB port on a laptop or other convenient USB docking station. This is along with the difficulty of creating a waterproof seal around an exposed USB blade, which is a flat, thin member with exposed contacts. Even if the bicycle mounting bracket or strap were removed so that the entire case could be brought to a computer, it has not always been possible to plug the USB connection into the computer.
In typical current implementations of lights with USB blades allowing for direct plug in and charging of the light, the rigid USB blade or stick used for charging is independent of the mounting apparatus and requires a separate cover to seal the exposed USB blades during use. This makes the light larger and requires extra parts that can be lost and extra steps required to charge the light. In one existing bike light the extending USB plug-in blade was inserted into a slot of a bike-mounted base, with the slot extending entirely through the base such that the outer end of the USB blade was exposed. A cap was provided to cover the end of the blade, also to retain the light unit to the base.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a light assembly, particularly for bicycles but also for other purposes, that is reliably waterproof, easily removed from the mount, simple and economic in construction, and directly plugged into a USB port to charge without the need for intermediary cables, or extra parts to seal the USB contacts when not in use.